Skip to content Skip to footer
Rewilding An Urban Garden

A book to profoundly connect you with nature

A book to change your year.

what people are saying:

“Lovely book…. I really enjoyed it, and liked the quirky humour, I thought the illustrations were excellent, too” Neil Ansell, author of Deep Country and other classic nature books

what it's about

The illustrated story of a magical year in a wild garden

The story interweaves diary entries and is told with a touch of humour

The book brings to life the charismatic myriad inhabitants of this extraordinarily prolific urban habitat.

It tells of the plants, animals, birds and insects, from the big and bold to the minute and the secretive, in all their mystery and interconnectedness.

Extracts

Sample diary entries

Jan 24th:

I’m watching the sparrows as they finally settle down to roost in the holly tree as darkness falls. All has gone quiet. Then I notice one bird hop down to the lowest branch of the tree, do a poo, and hop back up to where it was before. Seems like this is sparrow etiquette: you just don’t poo on someone else’s head while they’re asleep. We’ve all been there.

April 30th: Meeting this hedgehog brings a most extraordinary feeling of profound happiness: a sense that, just for these fleeting moments, everything in my world seems perfect, that all my worldly worries are forgotten, that nothing could be changed to make things any better. Having this iconic animal here seems like the epitome of wild naturalness. Maybe it’s because this species is so scarce and therefore all the more special; or perhaps it’s the fact that hedgehogs are just about the most heart-achingly adorable creatures you’ll ever encounter. Maybe it’s all of these.

Illustrations

Sample illustrations from the book

Co-designed by the author
author interviews

Videos

A BBC Radio interview about the book

A 30 minute TV programme about the book and garden

An interview on Latest TV

An earlier interview on BBC Radio

Interview about wild gardening on BBC Radio’s ‘Dig It’ programme:

click here

 

Reviews

Review in Sussex Wildlife Trusts magazine

Join the movement

Urban Wild Garden is the website and brand for the book, “Wilding the Urban Garden: An Illustrated Diary of Nature’s Year” by Gerry Maguire Thompson

Connect with nature and wildlife on your doorstep

Newsletter Signup

Urban Wild Garden © 2024. All Rights Reserved. | Site by Contentscape, Brighton